[3] Following graduation from college, McCormick went to Brussels, Belgium and attended the Alliance Francaise and the Free University for a year.
He learned the French language to enable him to teach sciences and mathematics in a secondary school in Kinshasa, Congo.
[2] While living in the Congo, McCormick worked in a local hospital and developed an interest in medicine,specifically tropical diseases.
In 1974, following his residency training, he was appointed an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
In 1993, he was appointed professor and chairman of Community Health and Sciences at the Aga Khan University Medical School in Karachi, Pakistan.
After clinical testing, he found that prompt and aggressive treatment with ribavirin significantly improved patient survival.